Bridgestone Defective Tire Lawsuits
Building a tire is a complex process. It is made more complex when the tires involved are heavy-duty or need to support a ton or more of weight. We don’t tend to think about our tires, but they do much more than we give them credit for. The tire is the apex of the evolution of one of humanity’s oldest inventions: the wheel. When a wheel broke on a horse-drawn carriage it usually didn’t result in a serious injury. The carriage was only moving at 15 mph. When a wheel blows out on a multi-ton vehicle traveling at 50 mph or better, the results are catastrophic.
If you have been injured in an auto accident and the proximate cause of the accident was a defective tire, you are entitled to collect damages from the company that manufactured the tire. The tire defect attorneys at Halpern, Santos & Pinkert have successfully millions of dollars in damages for clients who suffered devastating life-altering injuries. If you’ve been injured or someone you love has had their life cut short because of a tire-related accident, give our attorneys a call or contact us online and we can begin discussing your options for recovery.
2015: Truck Driver Files Lawsuit against Bridgestone after Fatal Crash
In 2015, a truck driver filed a lawsuit in Wyoming after he claimed that Bridgestone had sold him a tire that was defective at the time of purchase. Another vehicle was destroyed in the crash ending the lives of three people including a child. The driver was driving a FedEx truck with a trailer at the time when the tire blew out and struck a family’s Dodge Caravan. The Dodge Caravan was struck head-on after the front tire of the FedEx truck blew out causing the vehicle to skip the median and careen into oncoming traffic.
The plaintiff, who was the only survivor of the incident, filed a lawsuit against Bridgestone claiming that the tire caused his injuries. In addition, surviving family members of those in the Caravan filed a wrongful death suit against Bridgestone. The truck driver’s lawsuit was settled before trial for an undisclosed amount of money “far in excess of $75,000”. The couple who was killed in the accident along with their son left behind a daughter who was not with them when the accident took place.
Understanding Product Liability Lawsuits
Product liability lawsuits like the one described above come in three different kinds. Those are:
- Lawsuits that allege the design was defective,
- Lawsuits that allege that manufacturing error led to injury,
- Lawsuits that allege that manufacturer failed to warn an injured party of a nascent danger.
Since the details of the lawsuit were sealed, we don’t really know if Bridgestone created a defective product or if they designed one. Nonetheless, accidents like this happen more frequently than they should. While the vast majority of tires are safe, defective tires cause terrible accidents that take lives.
Contact a Tire Accident Attorney Today
If you’ve been injured in an accident caused by a defective tire or lost someone you love to a tire-related accident, give the tire defect attorneys at Halpern, Santos & Pinkert a call or contact us online. We have recovered millions of dollars in product liability lawsuits for our clients and we can do the same for you.
